Related Videos

Topics

Police in Montreal say its likely charges will be laid against a local webmaster who posted a graphic video that depicts what's believed to be the grisly murder and dismemberment of a Chinese undergraduate student by Luka Magnotta.

At a news conference Tuesday, Montreal police Cmdr. Denis Mainville said police are investigating the owner of the website Bestgore.com, and wouldn't rule out charges. The site has been up for four years, showing graphic reality videos and photos of gruesome deaths around the globe.

Mainville said contacting Mark Marek, the owner of the website, was one of the first things police did when they began their investigation into the murder of university student Jun Lin, who's severed hand and foot were mailed to Tory and Liberal headquarters in Ottawa -- a day before the graphic video appeared on the internet.

"We have been speaking with Edmonton police and yes, the owners of this site where the clip was hosted were called directly. It's not impossible that there could be charges eventually, but...it's the Crown that will have to evaluate things," said Mainville, who has seen the video. "I don't encourage anyone to watch this video. It's a video that is very sordid."

Edmonton police spokeswoman Patrycia Thenu said the local force is not involved in the investigation, but is looking into the matter internally and liasing with the Crown prosecutor's office.

Marek posted the video on May 25 after it was sent to him by a lawyer who picked it up from another website and contacted police in Toronto.

The video has since been taken down, but Marek continues to defend his decision on posting it, claiming that because the video was made public, the Best Gore community was able to identify the perpetrator days before the police.

On his website, Marek said as soon as the identity of the man in the video became clear, the findings were reported to Toronto police, but the authorities at the time did not find the information credible. A few days later, a severed foot arrived by mail at Tory headquarters in Ottawa.

"If exposing a murderer for whom he is and bringing his actions to the attention of the public and the police is a crime, then I better get put in jail," wrote Marek, who did not respond to an email interview about the possible charges, instead referring to an article he wrote on his website.

"Best Gore exists to expose the evil doers for who they really are, though I'm not surprised they are offended with me showing their true faces to the world and want the site shut down or me charged with whatever they can come up with."

Magnotta, a Toronto-born porn star, was arrested at an Internet cafe in Berlin, Germany on Monday. He faces charges of first-degree murder, indignity to a corpse and production and distribution of obscene material.